Blueprint Whistleblowing Prizes for 2023 Announced
Mathapelo More, one of the winners of this year’s Blueprint Whistleblowing Prizes, receives her award
Blueprint for Free Speech today launched its annual prizes recognising particular whistleblowers for their courage in speaking up in the public interest.
Our recipients this year include UK winners Dr Ravi Jayaram, Dr Steve Brearey, Dr John Gibbs and the other paediatric consultants at the Countess of Chester NHS Trust who have played such a vital role for patient safety in the Lucy Letby case.
In Africa we have five winners, Mathapelo More, Johannah Phenya, Mzukisi Makatse, Dawood Khan and Wardah Latief. More endured intimidation, harassment and unfair dismissal for trying to stop the state-owned company where she worked from being looted. Phenya and her husband Marumo exposed corruption related to a large state tender – a decision that cost Marumo his life. Makatse exposed corruption at South Africa’s National Lotteries Commission, and Khan and Latief risked their lives to expose an alleged money laundering operation for illicit cigarette sales.
This is the largest number of winners for one region we have ever had before, illustrating that African whistleblowers need much more support in their fight against corruption.
For North America our winner is Michael Bawduniak, who exposed biotech company Biogen’s allegedly corrupt dealings with medical professionals that resulted in the largest settlement award on record for a whistleblower.
For Europe our winner is Lukasz Krupski, the technician behind the “Tesla Files”, who revealed serious safety issues that the company has tried to sweep under the carpet.
And also for the first time, we have a prize recipient from Papua New Guinea: Neville Devete, who requested an independent investigation that helped trigger one of the country’s biggest corruption cases, is the winner of the Asia Pacific region whistleblower award.